Jefté Betancor was close to giving it all up, but he didn't, and a few years later he became the top scorer in Greece and knocked out Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey. The summary doesn't do justice to the rollercoaster ride that has been the football career of this 32-year-old Canarian, but it explains how football destiny can be extremely capricious at times. After scoring the goal that brought the Whites to their knees, Jefté and Albacete now face Barcelona at Carlos Belmonte, a stadium turned giant killer.
The fact that football has been capricious with Jefté is not just a cliché from a journalist; the striker's recent weeks have been filled with a series of coincidences worthy of a movie. A couple of days before the Copa match against Madrid, Jefté had a one-way ticket to Thailand to sign with Buriram United. He wasn't a regular starter in the Albacete team, and his parent club, Olympiacos in Greece, had reached a preliminary agreement with Buriram for him to play in Asia for the rest of the season.
The offer would have solved many years of his life, but he ended up saying "no" in favour of the excitement of playing against Madrid in the cup tie, after a conversation with Albacete's sporting director, Toché, another striker seasoned in the Spanish Second Division and in Greece. The director's words, encouraging the player to enjoy the historic cup round, resonated 48 hours later at the Belmonte, where Jefté scored two goals in the last 10 minutes to defeat Madrid.
"This is the greatest thing that has happened to me in football. It's what you dream of when you're young. Years ago, I wanted to quit football, and today I'm dreaming of this," he repeated on the pitch, still sweating after celebrating his team's victory over the Whites.
Jefté is a prime example of a football globetrotter. He came through the ranks at Vecindario and as a youth player, he signed for Hércules, where he made his debut in the Second Division, but from there on, his football was more about mud than jewels. Ontiyent, Tenerife B, Eldense, Viera, Badajoz, Las Palmas B, Arandina, San Fernando... Until he reached a point where he considered retirement.
"Nine years ago, I wanted to quit football. My head wasn't in the right place, so I left for six months, started working, training in my neighbourhood with my friends... I worked as an electrician to clear my head because it wasn't in the right place. I received a lot of help, from my family, from my psychologist... And today, I feel very rewarded," he explained after defeating Madrid.
Jefté's career took off far from Spain. He decided not to hang up his boots and went to Austria to play for Stadl-Paura in the Second Division and later for Mattersburg, Vorwärts Steyr, and Sportvereinigung Ried, where he became the top scorer in the First Division. After winning the award, he moved to Rumaria, where he played for Voluntari, Farul Constana, and CFR Cluj.
From Romania, he moved to Cyprus to play for Pafos, now in the Champions League. From his brief stint on the Cypriot island to Greece, the place that brought him back to Spain. He signed for Panserraikos, one of the most humble clubs in the Super League, and ended up as the top scorer of the competition, earning a name in the country to the extent that Olympiacos under Mendilibar signed him in the winter transfer window, leaving him in the team for the rest of the season. In the summer, with no opportunities under Mendilibar, he listened to Albacete and returned to Spain, coincidentally making history against Madrid once again. Now, it's Barcelona's turn.